


Let It Go...

by Crunchysunrises



Series: Meant To Be [2]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Break Up, Community: fic_promptly, Community: hc_bingo, Developing Relationship, F/M, Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 11:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crunchysunrises/pseuds/Crunchysunrises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevin Lynch is a good man and a life with him might be the essence of everything that Garcia has ever wanted in a relationship. She just has to persuade her heart to give up and let go of Derek Morgan, a thing that is easier said than done. But Garcia is determined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let It Go...

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Let It Go...  
>  **Fandom:** Criminal Minds  
>  **Rating:** G  
>  **Content Notes:** None  
>  **Disclaimer:** I have no rights to or within the Criminal Minds franchise, copyright, or trademark. This is for fun, not profit.  
>  **Summary:** Kevin Lynch is a good man and a life with him might be the essence of everything that Garcia has ever wanted in a relationship. She just has to persuade her heart to give up and let go of Derek Morgan, a thing that is easier said than done. But Garcia is determined.  
>  **Additional Notes:** Written because of something that [](http://oroburos69.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://oroburos69.dreamwidth.org/)**oroburos69** said. Also fills the "falling" square of my Hurt/Comfort bingo card and the "Author's choice, author's choice, time to call it quits?" prompt on fic_promptly.

Kevin Lynch is easily the best boyfriend that Garcia has ever had.

They have a lot in common, including hobbies and a department at work. Their paths cross much more often and more naturally than hers and Morgan’s ever did. Kevin invites her to coffee and then lunch and eventually out to dinner and before Garcia knows it they are dating and eating lunch together more often than not. Kevin starts showing up early in the morning with coffee and they end up commuting to and from work together.

They game together, online and off, and she proofreads his fanfic for mechanics. He remembers all of their little anniversaries, including their first kiss, first slumber party, and first morning after. She likes to cook, he usually does the dishes, and they liked to go to the farmer’s market together.

Slowly, knot by knot and strand by strand, Garcia begins untangling her life from Morgan’s. In order for there to be more time with her new boyfriend, there has to be less of something else. And the only thing that Garcia has an excess of is time blocked off for Morgan, a man who never looks at her the way that she looks at him, who might be incapable of giving her more than he already has. Garcia would never push Morgan but she needs more, Kevin is more, and their relationship just seems so _right._

When Kevin begins asking questions about Morgan and Morgan’s place within her life and Garcia knows that they are approaching the tipping point, beyond which she will be dumped.

They are at a broken down little carnival together and Garcia, who has had a bad reaction to the tilt-a-whirl, has her head between her knees when she realizes that she does not have to be dumped. This could easily be her life.

Not the barely keeping nausea at bay part, although there could be a fair amount of that she supposes, but the part where she has a boyfriend who gets her overpriced water when she is ill and spends his nights and weekends with he; a boyfriend who wants to share mornings, silly little triumphs, and sex. She could build a life with this man… if she can persuade her heart to fall out of love with Morgan and let him go.

It is a painful realization.

Garcia frets at it like a child with a loose tooth.

Eventually, she starts inviting Kevin along on dancing night with Morgan, testing the water so to speak.

It’s nice not to have to share her dance partner’s attention with a parade of gorgeous coeds and barflies. And, while Morgan had always been really good about making sure that she got home at the end of the night, it’s even nicer to have someone to stumble into her apartment with, someone who will giggle and have sex with her and be there when she wakes up in the morning.

Kevin Lynch may not be a chocolate Adonis but he looks at her like she is the most amazing person in any room and nothing makes him run, not even when she is an idiot or thoughtlessly crosses boundaries that should probably have been left alone. Garcia discovers that that makes up for a lot.

And he _tries._ He may not be the smartest or bravest or strongest but he tries to make it work and make her happy, which is more than Morgan has ever dared. Kevin Lynch is a good man and a life with him might be the essence of everything that she has ever wanted in a relationship.

Eventually, he says, “I’m sorry, muffin, but I’ve got to ask this: What’s the deal with you and Morgan?”

“Nothing,” Garcia lies and it hurts because she is working hard at making that the truth. “There is no deal between me and Morgan. We’re just really close friends. And we flirt sometimes. But that’s it.”

“Are you sure?” Kevin asks nervously. “Because Morgan is, well.”

“Morgan is unspeakably hot,” Garcia says, taking pity on her boyfriend. “But we have never and will never be a couple with each other. We just never clicked like that, you know?”

“Not like us,” Kevin says, relaxing. “I fell in lust with your brain the first time I saw your mainframe.”

“Awww, really?” asks Garcia, touched.

“Yeah, and your body was a nice surprise,” he adds “I thought for sure that you were going to be a guy named Penelope or married or someone’s grandmother.”

And Garcia laughs because, except for the lack of serial killers, that is a general summary of her dating adventures.

Kevin works at accepting Morgan as one of her work buddies and, although it breaks her heart, Garcia works ferociously at letting Morgan go, who may always be more than a friend but is less of a full blown romantic relationship with every passing day. She does not intend to put space between them and Morgan’s absence from all the nooks and crannies of her life hurts but she has to do what is best for her.

If she is going to knit her life into a new pattern, one in which Kevin is her guy and Morgan is her friend, she needs to reclaim the thread of her life, let go of the man with whom she cannot have the future that she wants, and maybe move on with the one who wants her (and whom she wants to be her one and only more and more with every passing week.)

Garcia knows when Kevin makes peace with Morgan’s presence in her life because Kevin eases up on invading movie night (which happens once a month now, if that) and stops asking about game night, which has been dropped entirely except for the occasional team party.

And then one afternoon, Garcia realizes that her shivery lust for him is gone, as is the painful twist in her heart. Flirting with Morgan is just good, clean fun with no undertones or half-formed relationship hanging between them. She may not be in love with Kevin yet, but her heart has finally let go of Morgan.

Relieved, Garcia grins. Morgan grins back at her and they are just two friends sharing a (mismatched) moment.

Garcia doesn’t know what the future holds with Kevin but she is finally ready to try for her happiness. And maybe without her holding him back, Morgan can find the person with which he can share his everything. Garcia hopes so, because she wants all of her friends to be happy.

And she is now, above all else, Morgan’s friend.

  



End file.
